WATCH: Spike Dykes’s last game ever… was also Kliff Kingsbury’s first start

Spike Dykes passed away this week. A Lubbock native and a (near) Lone Star State lifer, Dykes was the college game’s version of Bum Phillips. Both spent nearly all their lives in Texas, both were the same people on and off the field, both had sons follow them into coaching, both left legacies larger than their winning percentages, both were about the best quote a writer could ever hope for, and, no doubt connected to all those other traits, both had the audacity to treat football as a game.

To celebrate Dykes’s memory, Texas Tech dug up and shared a highlight reel of his final game as the Red Raiders’ head coach — a 38-28 win over Oklahoma. Aside from the obvious, this Nov. 20, 1999 game represented an interesting moment in Big 12 history. You’ll notice Kliff Kingsbury playing quarterback for Tech, his first start.

Squint and you’ll also notice Josh Heupel, Missouri’s offensive coordinator, playing quarterback for Oklahoma. He was at that time a junior college transfer playing for first-year head coach Bob Stoops. The upstart Sooners would finish this season 7-5 before going on to win the national championship the following season.

Texas Tech and Dykes, meanwhile, ended their season at 6-5 (you see, kids, they used to play 11 regular season games at this time), rendering them this game an artifact of an era when a team could win six games at sit at home during bowl season.

National columnist - Zach joined the staff in 2012...and has been attempting to improve Doug and Scott's writing ability ever since (to little avail). Outside of football season, you can find him watching the San Antonio Spurs reading Game of Thrones fan theories.